History Literature / JoeSteele

* JusttheFirstCitizen: After [[spoiler: Joe Steele's death, Hoover launches a coup and takes all the power of the executive branch for himself, but maintains the title "Director of the GBI."]]

----

* HanlonsRazor: Steele believes this of Kimmel, Short, and DouglasMacArthur. Not that it does them any good.

* LandslideElection:
** [[UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover Hoover]] takes Delaware, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Joe Steele takes the country. In his subsequent terms, the landslides get even bigger.
* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: John Edgar assassinates [[spoiler:Franklin Roosevelt]] by setting a fire. No one raises any alarm at a guy in a wheelchair being caught in the blaze.

** Instead of FDR's "Brain Trust" we have Steele's "Pain Trust"

* AlternateHistory: Diverges at the point where Stalin's father isn't an alcoholic and stays with his family, whereupon they choose to emigrate to the US. Joe Steele is the 32nd President of the USA while FDR [[spoiler:is assassinated by John Edgar Hoover]], the FBI is the Government Bureau of Investigation, WWII is not ended by the atomic bomb and a bloody invasion of Japan ensues, followed by a Japanese Civil War that mirrors the East vs West proxy wars of [[UsefulNotes/KoreanWar Korea]] and [[UsefulNotes/VietnamWar Vietnam]] with Trotsky as [[UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin Lenin]]'s successor.

* AllohistoricalAllusion: Instead of FDR's "Brain Trust" we have Steele's "Pain Trust"

* HopeSpot: After Steele finally dies, John Nance Garner becomes president, who has Steele's closest cronies ReassignedToAntarctica , and things seem to be looking up...[[spoiler: but Garner is successfully impeached, and with any other possible successors winding up dead, John Edgar Hoover Hoover and the GBI take over.]]

* InsistentTerminology: FDR is almost always Franklin D.--D for Delano--Roosevelt, to contrast his haughty "old money" image compared to Joe Steele's son of immigrants out of Fresno image.

* InSpiteOfANail: Steele's top three associates -- his "Pain Trust", are Americanized versions of Stalin's RealLife associates, including:

* LandslideElection: [[UsefulNotes/HerbertHoover Hoover]] takes Delaware, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Vermont, New Hampshire, and Maine. Joe Steele takes the country. In his subsequent terms, the landslides get even bigger.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: "The Hammer" is a shadowy backroom political dealer who gets things done.
** May be based on Molotov, whose name means "hammer".
** In the expanded novel, "The Hammer" is the nickname of Vince Scriabin, a longtime Steele aide. Vyacheslav Skryabin was Molotov's birth name so the novel name seems to be an Americanization of it.

* ShoutOut: Joe Steele's attorney general Andy Wyszynski is famous for prosecuting Belva Gaertner, a Chicago jazz singer who shot her lover and got off through slick lawyering. [[Theatre/{{Chicago}} They wrote a musical about it]].

* CallARabbitASmeerp: In this timeline, J. Edgar Hoover heads the Government Bureau of Investigation, or GBI, calling to mind both the FBI and the KGB.
* TheDragon: [[spoiler: J. Edgar Hoover]] is Steele's. When [[spoiler: Hoover]] [[DragonAscendant takes power after Steele's death]], [[spoiler: UsefulNotes/RichardNixon, possibly a Leonid Brezhnev {{Expy}}]] fills the role.

* EvilPowerVacuum: Shortly after being elected to his sixth term, Joe Steele dies and J. Edgar Hoover, The Hammer, and Steele's Vice President all scramble for control.

* HopeSpot: After Steele finally dies, John Nance Garner becomes president, who has Steele's closest cronies ReassignedToAntarctica , and things seem to be looking up...[[spoiler: but Garner is successfully impeached, and with any other possible successors winding up dead, J. Edgar Hoover and the GBI take over.]]

* MakeItLookLikeAnAccident: J. Edgar assassinates [[spoiler:FDR]] by setting a fire. No one raises any alarm at a guy in a wheelchair being caught in the blaze.

* AlternateHistory: Diverges at the point where Stalin's father isn't an alcoholic and stays with his family, whereupon they choose to emigrate to the US. Joe Steele is the 32nd President of the USA while FDR [[spoiler:is assassinated by J. Edgar Hoover]], the FBI is the Government Bureau of Investigation, WWII is not ended by the atomic bomb and a bloody invasion of Japan ensues, followed by a Japanese Civil War that mirrors the East vs West proxy wars of [[UsefulNotes/KoreanWar Korea]] and [[UsefulNotes/VietnamWar Vietnam]] with Trotsky as [[UsefulNotes/VladimirLenin Lenin]]'s successor.

* TheDragon: [[spoiler: J. Edgar Hoover]] is Steele's. When [[spoiler: Hoover]] [[DragonAscendant takes power after Steele's death]], [[spoiler: RichardNixon, possibly a Leonid Brezhnev {{Expy}}]] fills the role.

** In this history, Steele and his wife have two children who die of diptheria in early childhood. In reality, all four of Stalin's children[[note]]sons Yakov and Vasiliy, daughter Svetlana, and an illegitimate son who kept his identity a secret for political reasons[[/note]] survived into adulthood and his grandchildren and great-grandchildren live on today, albeit mostly under assumed names to avoid association with him.

* HappyEndingOverride: After Steele finally dies, John Nance Garner becomes president, who has Steele's closest cronies ReassignedToAntarctica , and things seem to be looking up...[[spoiler: but Garner is successfully impeached, and with any other possible successors winding up dead, J. Edgar Hoover and the GBI take over.]]
** Charlie Sullivan [[spoiler: escapes the initial purges of the GBI after Hoover takes power, and settles down into a somewhat normal life afterward. The novel ends just as the GBI is knocking on his door at 1:00 AM.]]

* InSpiteOfANail: Steele's top three associates -- his "Pian Trust", are Americanized versions of Stalin's RealLife associates, including:

** Charlie Sullivan [[spoiler: escapes the initial purges of the GBI after Hoover takes power, and settles down into a somewhat normal life afterward. The novel ends just as the GBI is knocking on his door at 2:00 AM.]]

* RichardNixonUsedCarSalesman: Prescott Bush becomes Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, despite not even being a lawyer. [[spoiler: An actually qualified associate justice has to advise Bush on what to do during Garner's impeachment.]]

* CallARabbitASmeerp: In this timeline, J. Edgar Hoover heads the Government Bureau of
Investigation, or GBI, calling to mind both the FBI and the KGB.

* CallARabbitASmeerp: In this timeline, J. Edgar Hoover heads the Government Bureau of Investigation, or GBI, calling to mind both the FBI and the KGB.

* InSpiteOfANail: Steele's top three associates -- his "Pian Trust", are Americanized versions of Stalin's RealLie associates, including:

* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler: UsefulNotes/DouglasMacArthur]] does this when summoned by Steele, and manages to get [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech a few jabs in]] before being led to the firing squad.

** Opponents of Steele's policies are referred to as 'wreckers', hearkening the Soviet terminology for opposing the regime under Stalin. As with the Soviet crime of wrecking under Stalin, the actual charges[[note]]mainly, industrial espionage and sabotage[[/note]] are more specifically covered under previously existing law but the 'wrecking' charge is broad enough that Steele/Stalin could make it mean whatever he wanted.

** Opponents of Steele's policies are referred to as 'wreckers', hearkening the Soviet terminology for opposing the regime under Stalin. As with the Soviet crime of wrecking under Stalin, the actual charges are more specifically covered under previously existing law but the 'wrecking' charge is broad enough that Steele/Stalin could make it mean whatever he wanted.

* ShoutOut: Joe Steele's attorney general Andy Wyszynski is famous for prosecuting Belva Gaertner, a Chicago jazz singer who shot her lover and got off through slick lawyering. [[Theatre/Chicago They wrote a musical about it]].

* ShoutOut: Joe Steele's attorney general Andy Wyszynski is famous for prosecuting Belva Gaertner, a Chicago jazz singer who shot her lover and got off through slick lawyering. They wrote a musical about it.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Stas Mikoian hints to Charlie that Steele's administration plans to emphasize racial immigration, likening the plight of African-Americans and Hispanics to that of Armenians and Jews in Tsarist Russia.